COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, ELECTRIC APPLIANCE, AND PORTABLE TERMINAL DEVICE

• US 20150172385A1
• Filed: 07/26/2012
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kuroyama, Kazuhiro, Kurimoto, Kazunori, Matsumoto, Michihiro
• Granted Patent: US 10,455,017 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A portable terminal device transmits a read request specifying a specific address that is an address shared among a plurality of electric appliances and acquires fixed data from a fixed data storage unit disposed at a specific address of an electric appliance. The fixed data includes setting address information that indicates an address of a setting storage area in which is stored object data that is data to be transmitted to a server device. The portable terminal device acquires setting address information included in the fixed data, and by specifying a read address on the basis of the setting address information and issuing a read request with respect to a variable data storage unit, the portable terminal causes the electric appliance to transmit the object data as read data, acquires the object data from the transmitted read data, and transmits the object data to a server.

Claims

1-13. -13. (canceled)

14. An electric appliance capable of communicating with a portable terminal device, the electric appliance comprising:

a variable data storage unit including a setting storage area for storing object data;

a fixed data storage unit which stores fixed data at least including setting address information that indicates an address of the setting storage area at a specific address that is an address shared with other electric appliances;

an apparatus communication unit which communicates with the portable terminal device; and

an access control unit which reads data stored at an address specified by the portable terminal device from the variable data storage unit and the fixed data storage unit and which causes the apparatus communication unit to transmit the read data to the portable terminal device.

15. The electric appliance according to claim 14, wherein

the access control unit:

reads fixed data stored at the specific address specified by the portable terminal device from the fixed data storage unit, and causes the apparatus communication unit to transmit the read fixed data to the portable terminal device; and

reads object data stored at an address that is indicated by the setting address information and specified by the portable terminal device, from the variable data storage unit, and causes the apparatus communication unit to transmit the read object data to the portable terminal device.

16. The electric appliance according to claim 14, wherein

the electric appliance further includes an apparatus control unit which causes the variable data storage unit to store the object data, and

the apparatus control unit causes the fixed storage unit to store information indicating an address of a storage area, in the variable data storage unit, where the object data is stored as the setting address information.

17. The electric appliance according to claim 16, wherein

the variable data storage unit includes a first variable data storage unit and a second variable data storage unit,

the read request with respect to the variable data storage unit is a read request with respect to the first variable data storage unit or a read request with respect to the second variable data storage unit,

the apparatus control unit causes the first variable data storage unit to store the object data, and

the access control unit determines whether or not the read request with respect to the variable data storage unit that is received by the apparatus communication unit is a read request with respect to the first variable data storage unit, and when the read request is a read request with respect to the first variable data storage unit, the access control unit specifies an address specified by the read request and issues a request to the apparatus control unit to read the first variable data storage unit, and indirectly reads the object data from the first variable data storage unit by acquiring data read by the apparatus control unit.

18. The electric appliance according to claim 17, wherein the access control unit determines whether or not the read request with respect to the variable data storage unit received by the apparatus communication unit is a read request with respect to the second variable data storage unit, and when the read request is a read request with respect to the second variable data storage unit, the access control unit directly reads object data stored in the second variable data storage unit from the second variable data storage unit.

19. The electric appliance according to claim 14, wherein

the variable data storage unit includes an instruction acceptance area for accepting writing of a control instruction for instructing an operation to the electric appliance, and

the fixed data includes a control instruction write address indicating an address of the instruction acceptance area.

20. The electric appliance according to claim 14, wherein the communication performed by the apparatus communication unit with the portable terminal device is short-range wireless communication.

21. A portable terminal device capable of communicating with an electric appliance, the portable terminal device comprising:

a portable communication unit which communicates with an apparatus communication unit of the electric appliance;

a specific address storage unit which stores a specific address that is an address shared by a plurality of electric appliances;

a fixed data acquisition unit which acquires, from the apparatus communication unit, fixed data stored in a storage unit of the electric appliance by causing the portable communication unit to issue a request to the apparatus communication unit for reading the fixed data by specifying the specific address; and

an object data acquisition unit which acquires, from the apparatus communication unit, object data stored in the storage unit of the electric appliance by issuing a request for reading the object data by specifying an address corresponding to setting address information included in the fixed data acquired by the fixed data acquisition unit.

22. The portable terminal device according to claim 21, further comprising:

a format information storage unit which stores, in advance, a plurality of pieces of format information respectively indicating a meaning of one or a plurality of pieces of information represented by the fixed data and positions, in the fixed data, where the one or the plurality of pieces of information are disposed in association with format identification information that identifies each of the pieces of format information, wherein

the fixed data includes the format identification information corresponding to the fixed data itself, and

the object data acquisition unit acquires the setting address information from the fixed data acquired by the fixed data acquisition unit on the basis of format information stored in the format information storage unit in association with the format identification information included in the fixed data.

23. The portable terminal device according to claim 21, wherein

the fixed data includes an error detection code for confirming whether or not the fixed data itself is normal, and

the fixed data acquisition unit determines whether or not the acquired fixed data is normal on the basis of the error detection code included in the fixed data.

24. The portable terminal device according to claim 21, wherein the communication performed by the portable communication unit with the electric appliance is short-range wireless communication.

25. A communication method of acquiring data from an electric appliance, the communication method comprising:

issuing a request to the electric appliance for reading fixed data stored in a storage unit of the electric appliance by specifying a specific address that is an address shared by a plurality of electric appliance;

acquiring, from the electric appliance, the fixed data read by the electric appliance in response to the request;

issuing a request for reading object data stored in the storage unit of the electric apparatus by specifying an address corresponding to setting address information included in the acquired fixed data; and

acquiring, from the electric appliance, the object data read by the electric appliance in response to the request.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium in which is recorded a computer program to be executed by a portable terminal device that communicates with an electric appliance, the recording medium causing the portable terminal device to function as the steps of:

issuing a request to the electric appliance for reading fixed data stored in a storage unit of the electric appliance by specifying a specific address that is an address shared by a plurality of electric appliances;

acquiring, from the electric appliance, the fixed data read by the electric appliance in response to the request;

issuing a request for reading object data stored in the storage unit of the electric appliance by specifying an address corresponding to setting address information included in the acquired fixed data; and

acquiring, from the electric appliance, the object data read by the electric appliance in response to the request.

27. A communication system comprising:

an electric appliance; and

a portable terminal device that communicates with the electric appliance, wherein

the electric appliance includes;

a variable data storage unit which includes a setting storage area for storing object data;

a fixed data storage unit which stores fixed data at least including setting address information that indicates an address of the setting storage area at a specific address that is an address where the fixed data is shared with other electric appliances;

an apparatus communication unit which communicates with the portable terminal device; and

an access control unit which reads data from the variable data storage unit and the fixed data storage unit and which causes the apparatus communication unit to transmit the read data to the portable terminal device, and

the portable terminal device includes;

a portable communication unit which communicates with the apparatus communication unit;

a specific address storage unit which stores the specific address;

a fixed data acquisition unit which acquires the fixed data by causing the portable communication unit to transmit a read request, with respect to the fixed data storage unit, for specifying the specific address to the apparatus communication unit and causing the apparatus communication unit to transmit the fixed data as the read data; and

an object data acquisition unit which acquires the setting address information included in the fixed data acquired by the fixed data acquisition unit, which causes the portable communication unit to transmit a read request, with respect to the variable data storage unit, for specifying a read address on the basis of the acquired setting address information, to the apparatus communication unit to cause the apparatus communication unit to transmit the object data as the read data, and which acquires the object data from the transmitted read data.

28. The communication system according to claim 27, wherein

the electric appliance further includes an apparatus encryption unit which encrypts the object data,

when a read request with respect to the variable data storage unit is received by the apparatus communication unit, the access control unit causes the encryption unit to encrypt read data that is read from a read address specified by the received read request and causes the apparatus communication unit to transmit the encrypted read data to the portable terminal device,

the object data acquisition unit acquires the encrypted object data, and

the communication control unit acquires the encrypted object data.